Recently, small power generation systems that use the waterways and rivers and canals around us to generate hydropower, or use wind to generate wind power, have gathered attention. Further, the applicant of the present invention has already proposed a vertical axis drive device such as a vertical axis wind turbine, and a power generation device that uses the same, to be favorably used in such a small power generation system. This invention corresponds to Patent Literature 1.
The vertical axis drive device such as a vertical axis wind turbine and power generation device that uses the same disclosed in Patent Literature 1 are designed for the purpose of obtaining (in particular, at high load) an extremely large amount of output compared to a Savonius wind turbine, which is conventionally the most common practically used type of vertical axis wind turbine, and controlling rotation, to thereby automatically prevent damage to the wind turbine during strong winds without using external power. Specifically, the vertical axis drive device has a plurality of rotor blades configured to support a blade on a planetary axis, that are arranged evenly in a circumferential direction of a central axis, and are provided integrally with the central axis in a manner that allows rotational movement. In such a vertical axis drive device, each of the rotor blades is configured such that it forms a multi-point crossover arrangement in which a surface of the blade is oblique to a radial direction centered on the center axis.